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By Hooker by Crook
"By Hooker By Crook" is the twentieth episode of Miami Vice's third season. The episode premiered on March 20, 1987. Summary Crockett romances a businesswoman who is really a madam with a girl that is a murder witness. Plot Crockett & Tubbs (as Burnett & Cooper) attend a charity function, and Crockett is speaking with Christine von Marburg (Melanie Griffith), who is looking for a few business contacts. Tubbs says the man they are there to see is getting ready to leave, and Crockett reluctantly leaves, promising to contact her. The man they are looking for, Symington, has gone to a hotel with a woman named Ali (Vanity) while Crockett & Tubbs wait. At Symington's apartment, there are two goons waiting (Capt. Lou Albano) & (Afa Anoai) who chase Ali into an elevator, then they throw Symington over the ledge and down to the street, twenty stories to his death. After the killing, Ali is frantically gathering clothes and gets out of her room, leaving behind a newspaper open to the story of Symington's death. Symington was a suspected money launderer, and the squad suspects he had some unhappy customers, and Ali left and didn't check on him. Crockett runs Christine down and finds her unlisted number, then go to see the person that held the party. The goons that killed Symington go to their boss, Togaru (George Takei) who sends them back out to kill Ali before she can turn them into the police. Crockett & Tubbs see the party's host (Veronica Cartwright) who is surprised about the turn of events, provides the girl's name, but has no other info other than she had some risque pictures of herself made at DeLa Moreno--a.k.a. Izzy. They go to see Izzy at his Boudoir Photography studio, where they get Ali's address, and they find her room cleaned out. Crockett calls Christine and invites her to dinner, where she discloses she's the owner of CVM Enterprises, and they part ways for the night. After Crockett leaves, Christine finds Ali in her room, crying and scared, and Ali tells her they killed Chuckie (Symington). Castillo wants the squad to continue their investigation of the Symington murder, meanwhile Togaru's goons rough up Izzy trying to find Ali. Izzy reveals Ali is a hooker that works for Caprice Escort Service, and Crockett asks Switek to have Gina & Trudy run it down. Switek is watching the apartment complex Ali lives in but she hasn't returned. Christine asks Ali for a little privacy for the evening's date with Crockett, and Ali lets her know she's going to get out of town. She returns to her apartment, but her hair is different than Switek's picture and he didn't recognize her. Crockett & Christine make love in her apartment, while Togaru's goons find Ali at her apartment and kill her. Trudy determines that Ali was not turning tricks in her apartment and Crockett & Tubbs go to check out Caprice. Crockett finds Christine's business is in the same building as Caprice, when they arrive they find a bunch of women talking dirty on the phone to callers, and the receptionist won't provide a list of Ali's recent contacts or the owner's info, so Crockett asks her to have the boss contact him before he gets a warrant. Crockett stops by to see Christine and finds out she was selected "Businesswoman of the Year", her & Crockett celebrate another date and end up in bed again. Christine will appear on a TV show, 'Miami at Midday' the next day about her award. The TV host (Bill Boggs) does his segment while Crockett watches and discusses her family background (comes from old money) and blindsides her (and Crockett, who had the report from Trudy just as the show came on) about their investigation finding out her money comes from being a madam. Trudy finds the Caprice Escort Service is run by a foreign corporation with ties to a domestic corporation whose principal stockholder is Christine, and Castillo orders Gina & Trudy to pick her up. A distraught Crockett requests phone records on Christine & Symington, which reveals Christine called Symington 42 calls in the past three months, and eight calls before his death, to Togaru, who Symington worked for as Chief Financial Officer. Crockett stops by to see Christine, who explains the madam job was a joke on her highly-respected family, then a job, then tons of money, but never hooked. Christine admits to setting up Symington with Togaru, because Symington didn't completely clean all of Togaru's dirty money by skimming, and Ali was innocent in all of this. Togaru was a client that became a very good friend and mentor in the corporate world. Crockett offers Christine a chance to clear her name by setting up Togaru with a meet between Cooper & Burnett to get money for her to leave the country, but not without a price for Togaru--a night with Christine. The meet and plan is set, but Togaru suspects a lie and sics his goons on Crockett & Tubbs, all of which are killed, including Togaru, who is shot down by Christine (and four large fish aquariums were shot open too). With her record cleared, Christine stops by to see Crockett on the St. Vitus Dance to tell him good-bye, she's leaving the country due to all the negative press (she admits the newspaper publisher and a TV reporter were her biggest clients). Notes * Melanie Griffith & Don Johnson were briefly married in the mid 1970's, after this episode they gave it another try and remarried in 1989, and had a daughter Dakota before they divorced again in 1996. Melanie married Antonio Banderas shortly thereafter. * Vanity worked with Prince in the 1980's and had a musical group "Vanity 6". * Captain Lou Albano & Afa were manager and wrestler (Afa was 1/2 of the tag team "The Wild Samoans") in World Wrestling Entertainment during the 1980's. * This episode originally had a longer scene when Crockett & Christine make love while Ali is killed, but NBC deemed the scene "too hot for television" and ordered it cut back when was repeated, and has aired in this version ever since, including in syndication, on the DVD releases and on Hulu. The uncut scene can be seen on YouTube click here and runs almost two minutes, while the revised version runs 1:12. * George Takei is known worldwide as Sulu on Star Trek: The Original Series, during which he played an evil Sulu in the episode "Mirror, Mirror". * Crockett uses a Commodore Amiga computer when looking up Christine's information, which was a major PC player during the mid 1980's. * Crockett uses his "clear my desk of all my other cases..." line in this episode. * The line "First a junkie, now a hooker" refers to Crockett's recent luck with romances. Music *"30,000 Feet" by Broken Homes (Opening sequence at party and Symington's death) *"Split Decision" by Steve Winwood (Crockett & Christine make love and Ali is killed) *"Holding Back The Years" by Simply Red (end sequence with Crockett & Christine) Quotes *"Would've done him more good if he could've used it for a parachute!" -- Crockett referring to Symington's MBA *"The only way she (Ali) could have killed him was in the bed!" -- Tubbs *"The only way he got to any of these places was through extradition!" -- Crockett about Izzy's list of cities for his photography studio *"How many times do I have to tell you?! I photograph beautiful women, not meatballs!" -- Izzy to Crockett & Tubbs after he's roughed up *"The next time you withhold information from me, pal, I'm gonna have a little chat with your parole officer, and then you get to play "Hide The Soap!" -- Crockett to Izzy Category:Miami Vice Season 3 Episodes